


I Know You

by sozmom



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A quick 'we knew each other before all this shit' fic, Altean Lance (Voltron), Hatred, Lil angsty, Love, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-03
Updated: 2017-11-03
Packaged: 2019-01-22 18:01:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12487592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sozmom/pseuds/sozmom
Summary: Everything with Lance is strangely familiar to Keith, he just doesn't know why.





	I Know You

Keith knows him. Maybe a little too well. Its weird, how familiar Lance seems, how Keith has this inexplicable feeling that they've met before. Before the garrison. Before voltron.

Keith knows Lance and he gets the feeling that Lance knows him.

\-----------------

The feeling comes and goes. He gets it the most when they're fighting oddly enough.

"I hate you" Lance spits at him as Keith swipes the comm device out of his hand. Lance had been staring at it for a while now, ignoring those around him in favour of it. It was grinding Keith's gears.

"Don't care" Keith replies, its not what he wants to say but he says it anyway. Like something was physically stopping him from treating Lance in any other way. The blue paladin bristles and makes a grab for the phone but Keith quickly dodges him.

Lance looks at him, loathing in his eyes. Loathing and something dangerously calculated. He makes another swipe, Keith's expecting it and swiftly moves away. What he doesn't expect was the knife he had previously had sheathed in his belt to now be in Lance's hands.

Keith's so momentarily stunned he can do nothing but stare, dumbfounded as Lance clutches the knife.

"Trade mullet man, you get your girlfriend and I get my comm" Lance bargains, waving the blade a little. A fury fills Keith to the brim. It crawls under his skin and makes him want to itch with how overwhelmed he is by it. By how familiar it feels.

Keith was used to getting angry. His emotions were never fully under control, especially in stressful situations. But this rage is nothing like that same frustrated anger he feels. This is bone deep and resonates inside him, like he'd felt it somewhere before. 

Now its his turn "I hate you" He says, and he means it. Its fine really, Lance meant it too.

They quickly exchange goods and move as far apart as possible in fear of retaliation. Lance stares at him hard but as quick as his intense look is there its gone and the blue paladin returns his attention to his comm screen, automatically turning and walking away.

"Later dipshit" Are his parting words.

"Go die in a hole" comes Keith's reply.

\--------------------------------

Shiro doesn't approve of their ... Rivalry? What were they? Enemies? friends? Tentative co-inhabitants and team mates.? The more time Keith spent around Lance the less sure he was of what they were.

Lance had stopped actively glaring at him at least. Now he just resolved to seeming annoyed by Keith's existence. ' _Get in line buddy'_ Keith thought.

"A little bit of cooperation would go a long way" Shiro tried to reason with them. Neither had protested but neither had agreed to change anything. Keith still felt like every interaction with Lance had happened before. The snarky comments and cruel name calling seemed like a script at this point.

Some days Keith could tell what Lance would say before he'd said it. It was .... weird. Too weird to mention to Shiro, to personal to ever live down asking for advice from his other teammates. Lance seemed content in their hatred for each other at least. 

Despite what people thought Keith knew when to pick his battles and he didn't seem to want to fight any when it came to Lance.

"At least stop the name calling" Was the final happy middle ground that Shiro had proposed. From that day forward Lance stopped calling him mullet man and dipshit and quiznacker and in return Keith held his tongue when he wanted to call lance a moron, a dumbass or a fucker.

Instead Lance called him 'Kogane'. It was a lot more jarring than any of the cruel nicknames. It was new, no familiar tingle clouding Keith's expeirence.

It invoked feelings that were much warmer and more favourable than the itching rage.

Whtether these feelings were bred in the same place as the hatred he hadn't a clue. Then again he was all too well aquainted with liking pretty boys who were even mildly decent towards him.

\--------------------------------------

The blade was Galra.

His only connection to his past was Galra.

He was Galra.

It felt wrong, so wrong but the truth settles into the cracks of his mind. It fills in some of the missing feelings. It clarifies some of the confusing ones.

Everyone seemed shocked when he came clean. Allura could barely look at him.

But Lance. Lance stared at him, like he did sometimes and Keith had a feeling Lance knew all along. That somewhere locked in his brain he knew.

"Explains the bad hygiene" Lance had broken the silence first. A joke that didn't quite land but put the whirring in Keith's mind to rest momentarily.

"Thanks McClain" Keith had bit out sarcastically. Lance flashed him a quick smile. It was cocky and grandiose but his eyes were sincere in their support.

\-----------------------------

Allura had been injured and Coran was out cold. Any hope of surviving this now seemed null.

"Maybe I could pilot the castle. I'm Galra" Keith suggests, desperation creeping up. If they couldn't get the castle out of here they could hand Zarkon his victory on a silver platter."

It won't work" Lance says cooly. How could he have a level head right now. How could he not even try? "Then do you have any ideas Lance?" Keith snaps, he barely notices the slip of the name. Barely gets to relish in how it sounds from his mouth. For so long he was just McClain.

Lance doesn't look at Keith, at any of the paladins. He sets his shoulders and marches forward taking Allura's usual spot. "Lance what the hell are you doing?" Hunk cries out in panic.

This should be a risky move, this should concern Keith greatly, should anger him. However something inside him tells him this is right. That there is nothing to worry about because Lance was where he should be.

The blue paladin closes his eyes and lifts his hands. Its quiet for a moment as nothing happens.

Then he glows.

Bright blue markings appear on his skin and the tops of his ears elongate and become pointed.

All The members of voltron gasp, unable to believe what was unfolding before them. All of them but Keith.

Somewhere deep down, he knew. He just knew.

\-------------------------------------

Its days later, when things have finally calmed down that Lance knocks on his bedroom door.

There was talk of Lance's altean origin. Allura had no recollection of Lance on Altea. Lance had shrugged and said he didn't remember either, said instinct led him to try such a move. Keith saw right through it.

It wasnt that Lance wasn't a good actor, Keith had just played that part before.

He had expected Lance to show up. He knew Lance would because he knew Lance. Oh god did he know Lance.

The two sit in silence for a moment in Keith's room after he'd let him in.

"Since when..?" Keith finally asks , unable to handle the silent tension. "Since I got in Blue" Lance confessed looking down at his feet.

Keith's a little shocked at just how long Lance has known, but doesn't call him out for keeping secrets. Keith was still keeping a few of his own.

"You remember" Keith states, its not a question because it doesnt have to be.

"I was the youngest child of King Alfor. Allura's my sister - she doesn't know" He explains briefly. Keith says nothing, simply waits for him to continue. "When Alfor realised there was little hope left he froze Allura but he sent me away. He wiped my memories, sent me to earth in a pod with a guard accompanying me. A Galra gaurd. The landing was rough and we got separated but, when I was awoken a woman found me. My abuela. She took me in, thought I was an abandoned child and raised me as an earthling. I didn't even know" His voice breaks slightly, still he won't look at Keith.

Keith watches him still. Wanting to reach out, instinctively knowing he should but he doesn't.

"The lion helped me realise I was more than human. But a few days ago. Piloting the castle. It was like it all came back to me. Allura, my father. .. My mother" His voice trails off sadly. All Keith wants to do it run his hand across Lance's back, to provide comfort that he somehow knew would work. 

"What of the Galra gaurd?" Keith asks, for lack of anything better to say. " don't know. She had a kid with her at the time. Her son. I think.... I might be crazy but I think that was ..."

He didn't need to finished the sentence. Keith knew it before he said it. An overwhelming amount of information seems to flood his brain as if a dam had been broken.

"She was your private guard" Keith says quietly. She, his mother. A woman he had no memory of, nothing but a blade. Suddenly images of her dutifully watching over the two of them when they were younger comes to mind. The cold of the cryogenic pod Alfor had put them in. The feeling of having memories stolen from his own head by altean magic.

Altean magic, like the kind Lance performed when they played together. "You were my best friend" Lance says, as if he was reading Keith's mind. He could've been for all Keith knew.

"I know"

He knew. Of course he knew.

\---------------------------------------

Keith awakes the next morning with a familiar warmth pressed against him. He allows himself the chance to savour the feeling of his best friends arms wrapped around him. They spent the night remembering and passed out on Keith's bed, tangled together, not dissimilar to the joint naps they used to take.

He looks up at Lances sleeping face and his heart flutters in his chest. This is new. Everything felt familiar last night but finally he had something new.

The bright blue crescent markings stood out on his deep skin. Keith dared to reach up and smooth his thumb over the one atop his left cheek.

Lances eyes flutter open, still that ocean blue. They're confused for a moment before fondness fills them.

"G'mornin" Lance yawns out tiredly.

"Morning" Keith mumbles back, keeping his hand on Lances cheek. The other boy moves into the touch, humming contently.

This was new territory. New memories were being made for him to relive again and again.

It was exhilarating and it made him brave.

It was bravery which led his lips to Lances. Pressing them gently together. The former altean prince seems surprised but responded eagerly.

Although Keith had never kissed anyone before he seemed to know what he was doing.

He always knew when it came to Lance.

**Author's Note:**

> This was a quick and introspective fic. I didn't wanna make a big deal about it really. Altean Lance art is a beautiful thing tbh.  
> This is canon divergent I imagine some events in canon unfold as they should while others are clearly different.  
> Leave kudos and comments if you enjoyed.  
> If you wanna talk to me more hmu on tumblr @prettybanter


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